MSI Officially Unveils Upgradeable Graphics Card.

Microstar International, a major maker of computer components, officially introduced Thursday its Geminium-Go graphics card that is powered by two mobile PCI Express modules (MXMs) and features two graphics processors that may be changed once users would like to have higher performance.

MSI describes its Geminium-Go as an adapter for MXM modules. When installing one or two MXM graphic cards onto MSI Geminium-Go, users can apply mobile graphics processing units (GPUs) into desktop computer. If users want to upgrade the graphics performance, they could change the MXM module without changing MSI Geminium-Go. MSI’s Geminium Go also supports scalable link interface (SLI) multi-GPU technology developed by Nvidia Corp. thus potentially allowing to install up to two high-performance mobile graphics chips.

According to MSI, during testing in 3DMark05, the MSI Geminium-Go featuring two GeForce Go 6600 chips got over 4200 points, while the GeForce 6600 desktop graphics card got 3600.

“MSI Geminium-GO demonstrates that users can experience better graphic performance with low power consumption,” a statement by MSI read. Indeed, mobile graphics processors usually consume less power than their desktop brethren, but they are more expensive to produce, thus, they cost a little bit more and perform a little bit slower compared to fully-fledged high-end desktop graphics cards.

The manufacturer originally showcased the Geminium-Go at Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, around a month ago. Neither then, nor now, MSI announced when users are to be able to purchase the Geminium-Go and where they are supposed to get MXM modules that are not generally sold in retail. MSI also did not say which graphics chips are compatible with the Geminium-Go besides the aforementioned GeForce Go 6600.

Nvidia MXMs are designed for usage in notebooks and are supposed to allow customers to upgrade graphics sub-systems in their laptops. In reality, it is practically impossible for end-users to acquire MXM graphics cards themselves. There are a number of MXM implementations – MXM-I, MXM-II, MXM-III and MXM-HE – for various needs that are different by footprints (MXM-I is the smallest, MXM-HE is the largest) and by thermal compatibility. While the MXM products are backwards compatible (MXM-HE slot can support all the rest form-factors), different notebooks employ different MXM flavours and utilise specific cooling systems.